Alternate Future
by Lance McClain.45
Summary: The paladin's (minus Lance) are mysteriouly sent to the future, where they meet Lance... only he's not the same as they remember. He's older, tougher, wiser, and has more than a few dark secret's. Will he open up to them? Will they ever get back home? And are they as safe as they seem? First ever FanFiction!
1. chapter 1

"Damn it, Lance! I said shut up!"

Lance flinched, backing away from Pidge with his hand's up and an almost fearful frown on his face. Really, he should have known better than to bother the small girl when she was working. She had a hard enough time concentrating without him running his mouth. Still, her word's held a real bite, and he felt his throat tighten before he could blink. He just wanted to talk for a bit...

"S-sorry, Pidgey. I'll sit here quietly." Pidge scowled at the nickname.

"I have a better idea. Why don't you go and bother someone else? Let me work! You don't even understand half of what I'm doing anyway." Lance shuffled on the floor awkwardly. He wishes he could say otherwise, but Pidge was right as ever. He didn't understand.

Maybe he should go.

Sighing, he complied and left, deciding that maybe Shiro would be better, more accepting company. He walked past the training room, hearing the usual sounds of Keith fighting. He was about to continue down the hall, when an unusually loud 'BANG' echoed from the room. Concerned, he ran Inside, only to find...

 _Shiro?_

The older man was sweating, hunched over with both hands on his knee's and breathing harshly. He looked up when he noticed Lance.

"Ah, hello Lance. What're you doing here?" He gave a small smile of which Lance returned.

"Oh, nothing really. I just thought I'd come hang out with my favorite space dad." Shiro stood up straighter.

"Space dad?... Never mind. Actually, I'm kinda busy right now." Lance frowned, looking around.

"You don't seem very busy."

"I'm going to train with Keith in a minute. He should be here soon."

"Oh, well... Maybe I could join you!" Shiro sighed.

"I... Think it would be best if you didn't. You might not be able to handle it. It'll be intense."

To intense? Not able to handle it? This was Lance McCLain Shiro was talking about! He could handle anything. And that's exactly what he told his leader, only it didnt bring the result's he was looking for.

"I said NO Lance! It'll be to much for you to handle, and neither me nor Keith want you here to drag us down."

We don't want you here.

Mr. Mullet walked into the room right at that moment, eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open at the sight he saw. Lance- having gotten startled by Shiro's sudden yelling- had fallen on his butt, with tears in his eyes as he stared at the tall man in front of him. Shiro looked mad, but his face seemed to soften slightly every second.

"What... Happened?" Keith asked carefully. Lance's head snapped over in his direction, before quickly getting up.

"N-nothing. I'll just go and let you both train."

"Well, do you want to...join us?" Lance nearly ran to the door, only glancing at Shiro for a second.

"No, no. You two do it. You probably don't want me here anyway." He gave a sad smile and laugh before disappearing.

"Lance wait, I-" The boy was gone, and Shiro looked guilty. Keith didn't ask why.

He wished he had.

The day didn't get any better for Lance, sadly. Hunk was busy cooking, Allura brushed him off right away as she thought he only want to flirt, and even Coran was busy with some sort of alien document's he said he needed to file through- although he did at least ask Lance if he wanted to help. Lance kindly said no, because reading document's didn't sound very fun. So, he ended up with Blue, sitting on her left paw and talking to her about anything and everything.

He eventually fell asleep.

"I say he stays here."

The paladins, minus Lance, we all sitting together in the common room. Allura had just informed them of a strange piece of technology that Coran had discovered on a planet close by. Some kind of Galran tech, but unlike anything they've seen before. After a quick scan, it was clear that the base the... Machine was in was long abandoned. So it was easily decided that they would go check it out. Now there was only one question left:

Does Lance stay or go?

Pidge gave her input, saying Lance should stay as he was being extremely annoying and she didn't want to deal with him. Hunk wanted Lance to come, and Shiro and Keith eventually decide that Lance should stay while they left.

"We won't really need him for this anyway. There are no Galra for us to worry about, it's just technical stuff." Pidge agreed. Hunk said nothing.

They left without Lance.

Pidge and Hunk fiddled with the machine, unscrewing panel's and poking at wires. Keith and Shiro stood guard, keeping an eye out just in case they weren't as alone as they thought. So far, everything was going fine.

"This... This is amazing! The tech is so advanced! I can't wait to get this back to the castle." Hunk said excitedly. Pidge nodded.

"I know right. I'm just curious as to what this thing does." Hunk shrugged. Suddenly, the machine sparked and fizzled, and Pidge yelped in frustration and fear.

"Damn it! I pushed something..." Shiro and Keith ran over.

"Is it broken?" Shiro asked.

"I hope not! We didn't even get it out of the base yet!" Hunk began to push buttons in hopes of fixing the thing somehow. Keith watched him warily.

"Are you sure you should-"

B A N G !

The base shook as the machine lit up a wild purple, and began tumbling from side to side like a violent washing machine. It slammed into Hunk, sending him crashing, and nearly rammed Pidge in the head. Shiro ducked. Keith jumped back. The machine was shaking even more now, the whole base vibrating along with it. A distorted whizzing sound began to echo through the room and suddenly-

There was silence. The machine no longer moved, and the base stilled. And it was quiet, and calm.

And the room was empty.

When Keith woke up, he realized something. He was laying on dirt. Looking around, he also realized that he was outside, and on a planet that didn't quiet look like the one he was on only seconds ago. He also noted that he wasn't alone. Shiro was next to him, and Pidge and Hunk were farther off to the right. To his relief, everyone seemed uninjured and was waking up as well. Groggily, he stood. His legs were shaky, and his head throbbed, but he was otherwise unharmed.

"Everyone alright?" Asked Shiro. Pidge mumbled a yes, and Hunk nodded. Satisfied, they all began to look around.

"Where... Are we?" Hunk asked. Pidge shrugged, but it was obvious that she was confused. Shiro was as well. They were just inside a Galran base! Now, there was no base in sight. Just the crumbled ruins of what looked like an ancient city. Keith rubbed his temples. This was annoying! Where were they?

Keith stopped rubbing when he suddenly felt something cold and hard press against the back of his skull. Shiro, Hunk and Pidge gasped when they saw the man behind Keith, and quickly grabbed for their bayards, only to find them missing. Pidge cursed. They must have lost their weapons in the commotion back in the base. The point was, someone had a rifle against the head of their friend, and they had no way to defend him or themselves. The man then spoke.

"Who...how are you here?" Pidge quirked a brow.

"We don't know, we just... Ended up here. Sorry." The stranger shook his head.

"No, I mean _how_ are you _here_? You... You all _died_ , Pidge." The girl nearly flinched back. What the hell! He knew her name? The man then grabbed Keith's shoulder and flipped him around so they were face to face. Keith sucked in a breath.

The man was older, in his early thirties maybe, with dirty golden brown skin littered with thin white scars. His hair was dark and oily, and his eyes held dark bag's. The thing that struck him the most however, were the man's eyes- which were scaning over him.

They were a bright ocean blue, with flecks of green and yellow. He knew these eyes, he trusted them, yet they did not fit on the stranger before him. They didn't. But they did... They had to. Because Keith knew he was right. Knew that these eyes couldn't belong to anyone other than him.

"... Lance?"


	2. 2

The man- Lance -stared at Keith, bright eyes becoming dark as he seemed to asses the situation. But that couldn't be right, because Lance didn't asses anything! Lance cracked jokes, Lance flirted, and Lance did stupid things without listening. But he wasn't vigilant, and he wasn't this serious. But then again, he also wasn't supposed to have so many scars.

Lance finally dropped his gun, letting it fall to the ground, and pulled Keith into a hug. A _hug_. _Lance_ didn't hug _Keith_. They were rival's, Lance had even said so himself! (Though Keith didn't ever actually agree to being rival's, when he thought about it) But still!

"I thought you were dead." Lance whimpers.

"Wha-" Lance stand's up before Keith can finish, looking panicked.

"Coran, I almost forgot!" And he ran off before anyone could speak.

"We have to follow him." Shiro says, wanting answers. Pidge and Hunk nod, and the four follow the blue paladin as fast as they can.

Following Lance was much harder than any of them expected. He seemed to easily avoid them, and was also fast. His ability to run a great distance without taking a break didn't make thing's any easier. It was as if he was trained in avoiding and hiding from people. Pidge decided she didn't like that thought. Then again, she didn't like any of this.

They did manage to keep up though, more or less. Lance had run all the way to what looked like a shack made out of rusty junk and cloth, and stepped inside. They followed him, and gasped.

Inside the structure (home? They hoped not) were maps. A lot of maps. Paper maps, holographic maps, hand drawn maps... It was amazing. On the wall across from the door, there were pictures. Pictures of older versions of themselves with the older Lance, pictures of Coran and Allura. There were even a few of Rover, floating next to a younger Pidge. On the far left wall there was what looked like a broken TV, and to the right was a large and dirty brown curtain.

Shiro went first, the others close behind him as he parted the curtain slightly. Behind it was another larger room, with what looked to be a small kitchen on the right and living room to the left. There was also a hallway from the kitchen, probably leading to more rooms. They went to the hall, as Lance was still nowhere to be found. They found one bathroom, two bedrooms, and one room at the end of the hall that had no door, but another curtain. This one was orange. Keith parted it this time, and smirked when he saw Lance. He walked inside.

"There you are, we've been looking all...over..."

Keith finally noticed the bed Lance was standing over, and more importantly, the person who occupied it. It was Coran, looking limp and dull, with gray skin and sunken eyes. His heart jumped into his throat at the sight. It was everything the normally cheerful man wasn't, and it was sickening.

"Oh my god! What's wrong with him?" Hunk yelled suddenly. Lance hushed him, continuing to press a wet towel to the orange man's forehead.

"I don't know. He's been sick for awhile. I haven't found a cure yet." Hunk frowned. His friend sounded so... Sad. It truly broke his heart.

"You've been dealing with this by yourself?" Pidge asked. Lance nodded.

"Yep, for seven year's." Lance said in a voice laced with acceptance. The team's eyes widened. Lance had been alone, dealing with all... _this_... for seven year's? It was almost unreal. It was definitely unthinkable. Yet here they were. Coran coughed, looking up at the group through half lidded eyes.

"L-lance... I see them again. I... I need more m-medicine..." Lance shook his head, smiling.

"No. No they're actually here this time. I see them too." Coran only nodded, mumbling something as he fell back asleep. Hunk was close to tears, and Pidge had to look away. Even Keith seemed uncomfortable. Shiro was fidgeting. Lance huffed a laugh.

"Right well. I gave him more med's, so he should be fine. Anyone... hungry?" Everyone nodded.

"Great! Well... let's go to the kitchen then." He stood and walked past Shiro, and the group finally saw how tall he really was. Before, there was nothing to really compare him to, and thus no way to really tell his hight. Now though, they had a pretty good idea, and it surprised them all.

He was taller than Shiro. _Much_ taller.

Turns out that Lance was... a pretty great cook. Pidge would unashamedly admit that she was wary of the blueish green concoction Lance had dumped in her bowl at first. Hell, everyone seemed at least mildly disgusted. But after the first bite, she realized that it was actually pretty good! To her surprise, it tasted something like banana blueberry yogurt. There was even a slight mango aftertaste.

"Wow man, this is good! What did you use?" Hunk asked. Lance smiled.

"I'm not sure what they're called to be honest. It's just some weird alien fruit I found." Keith raised a brow.

"What if the fruits had been poisonous?" Lance shrugged.

"Obviously I ate some first, to be sure." The table went silent, until...

"WHAT!?" Everyone yelled. Lance looked confused.

"...What?"

"You ate alien food without knowing if it would kill you or not?" Hunk asked. Lance nodded, as if it were obvious.

"Well, yeah. I had to make sure it was safe for Coran and Allura. Trust me, if there was another option, I would have done something different."

"Wait, Allura's here too?" Pidge asked. Lance nodded again.

"More or less. She's here physically, at least. Ever since Coran got sick, she's been... Spacey. I'm not sure if that's the right word but, it's all I can think to describe it." The group frowned.

"Is there any way we can help?" Keith asked. Lance seemed surprised, then shook his head.

"Not really. Except maybe trying to make her eat? She doesn't listen to me anymore, when I ask her. And she won't eat on her own at all." Keith nodded.

"Sure thing."

"You all can wait here, or watch TV. Or whatever you want. We'll be back. I'll grab the food Keith, just follow me. Please don't be loud, guy's. You'll wake up Coran." Lance said. Shiro was honesty surprised at his tone. It wasn't rude or mean. But it was definitely assertive. He was definitely a leader.

What happened?

 _Hi guy's, Lance here! Oh boy, the story is really starting to get juicey! In the next chapter, we'll meet Allura, explore the strange planet, and uncover some dangerous secret's that Lance has been trying to cover up..._

 _I really hope you all like the story so far. Don't be afraid to comment, cause I love to read and respond to those :)_

 _Until the next chapter, PEACE OUT!_


End file.
